I think we need Annual Passes

Well yeah, get them! You should be able to upgrade your tickets to annual passes if you do it before you use them I think. There are several people who have done it here lately. I'm just not exactly sure how they did it.

I upgraded to annual pass in November and paid the difference. I had no issues with the dining plan. I upgraded after I had used one day.

I find that if you plan to spend 14 days or more in the parks during a 365 day period, get the ANNUAL PASS!!! We've been having AP's now for four years and love the perks that come with them, to include free parking in the parks ($17 a day savings), 10% off food and merchandise purchases, special events invitations, pre-order F&W Festival event tickets, and most recently, Fast Pass + selections 30 days out from your vacation, not to mention you get Magic Bands... And the list goes on......

Just go for it!! YOU WON'T REGRET IT!!!

The day that you get to one of the parks in November to start your 10 day tickets, just go to any ticket booth and they can upgrade you to an AP right then and there. Are you planning on driving to the parks? DH and I upgraded to Annual passes because it's now $17/per day to park. If you are relying on Disney transportation everyday you will be here, then parking isn't an issue, of course. But if you are driving your own car, $17/per day adds up very quickly.

If you aren't going to keep the dining plan, once you upgrade to the AP, you could buy the Tables in Wonderland card right at the ticket booth too. It would give you 20% off all food, beverage and alcohol at certain restaurants. It is $100 for pass holders and only one of you needs to get it for both of you to get the discount. You will have to run the numbers between the dining plan and the discount at TIW discount and also check the restaurant list to see if you like the restaurants.

You will still get 30 days advance, w/ the AP, to schedule your FP+ choices and you are allowed to have 7 days of FP+ choices scheduled at a time.

We have annual passes because we realized that two 7-day length of stay passes cost a little more than an annual pass, without even considering the free parking and AP discounts. And since you'll be in the Orlando area all winter, you could feasibly go a lot more than 14 days.

We just went to a park ticket booth to upgrade from our original 7-day passes.

We live 90 minutes from WDW and had never purchased anything more than a 1-day park ticket in the past. We finally purchased Annual Passes in March. We've been 4 times in the last 6 weeks (with day trip #5 coming on Sunday).

It is pretty nice knowing that you don't need to stay ALL DAY at the park to get your money's worth. We now go early, stay in the park until 2 or 3, then usually hit one of the resorts for the lounge or an early dinner before heading home.

We also purchased a Tables in Wonderland card the last time we stayed for a weekend at the park. We like to sit down, have a drink with a nice meal so it works much better than the dining plan ever would for us. Already paid for itself.

AND there are a few different ways to qualify for the Florida resident discount when you purchase an annual pass - make sure you check out the requirements before you purchase.